LB 1026 
.06 
1908 
Copy 1 



SYNOPSIS 



OF A 



Plan for the Thoro Reorganization of tlie 
American Public Scfiool System 

ON LINES TO BE EXEMPLIFIED HY A 

MODEL SCHOOL 

TENTATIVELY DESIGNATED 

"THE PEOPLE'S NEW EDUCATION ADVANCED COMMON 

SCHOOL." 

BY 

C. H. DOERFLINGER, 

The Origiiiatcr and EliiLorator of the Project. 



FOURTH REVISED EDITION. 
lUh to ISth THOUSAND. 



PUBLISHER : 

NATIONAL NEW EDUCATION LEA(;rK^ 
Milwaukee, Wis. 

1908. ^ «- , ., , s ,v/.> 

SULLIVAN PRINTING <■<>., MII.WAVKKE, WIS. ^ U /f ' 




German-English Academy 

(Engeltnann School). Founded at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1851 
AND THE 

National German - American Teachers' Seminary 

(Normal School). Founded in 1878 by the Ger.-Amer. Lehrerbund 




Both instil utions iiro basoiloTi the ratioiuil oljjcctive an 1 ilevolopin!; piinciplcs and niethoils 
introdnreil Ihtc nearly 6(i years ago. 

They Will Open for 1908-1909, Monday, September 14, 8 A. M. 

For catalngs of'these institntioii.s and other infurniaticn eoneerninj; them plense apply to 

MAX GRIEBSCH, Director 
558-568 Broadway, MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN 



The People's 
New Education Advanced Common School 



PRESENT DEFECTS AND THEIR CAUSES. 

Every teachers' convention and educational magazine presents 
indications of dissatisfaction with the present condition and results 
of our school system ; a cry for relief and betterment goes out to 
the high places and is answered by the injunction to follow faith- 
fully the well-known and generally-accepted doctrines of the great 
pedagogic philosophers of the present and past ages. But the 
American people, so quick to find or invent ways and means 
of progress in the industries and other fields of practical 
activity, is inconceivably slow, over-conservative in the mat- 
ter of educational advancement. . The Lancaster system reigned 
supreme for nearly half a century until Horace Mann re- 
turned from Europe and proclaimed the doctrines of rational 
pedagogy for which his observation, principally in Germany, 
had inspired him. Notwithstanding his strenuous and fiery 
agitation, kept up for some twenty years, another half cen- 
tury has passed, and still the light he ignited has not dawned 
upon most of the school districts of our country. The school work 
is still irksome for pupils and teachers, a burden instead of a pleas- 
ure, unsatisfactory and therefore joyless ; it is particularly so in 
regard to the development of ethical excellence, strong character 
and lovable disposition. Inconsiderateness, even rudeness, lower 
ideals, mercenary tendencies, inferior aims and tastes, lack of rever- 
ence, have been growing. Respect for the law and the inalienable 
human rights, even for the simple precepts of the Golden Rule, is 
on the decrease. In magnificent school buildings in wealthy cities 
the teaching force trembles before the possibility of strikes or other 
outbreaks of a reign of terror led by a considerable percentJ^.ge of 
criminally disposed pupils; but a backward educational hierarchy 
combined with inefficiently constituted school boards still in many 
parts of the country proclaims the 3 R Trinity as the tru^^. and 
only God. Educational pathfinders endowed with a holy fire of 
enthusiasm for the uplifting of the race by means of humanitarian 
soul-development usually meet with indififcrence and want of insight 
on the part of school boards as well as parents and public opinion ; 



they either leave the profession or become discouraged, perfunctory, 
pedagogical pot-hunters ; in other cases intimidations and persecu- 
tions make them throw up their hands, seek other fields of activity 
and make room for pliable tools of the dominant powers. Thus the 
most important vital and sacred interests of the people are often 
and in many places betrayed, and desirable betterments retarded for 
decades or half centuries. 

ETHICAL AND ESTHETIC DECADENCE. 

Demands of enlightened educational philosophy endorsed in 
theory by the professional leaders, associations, convention orators 
and literature, are still misunderstood or ignored by the great ma- 
jority of the teachers and even in many Normal Schools in practice. 
Even the progressively disposed minority timidly introduce one 
improvement here, another there, sporadically in time and space, for 
fear of being considered revolutionary cranks by their school boards, 
most members of which are usually elected for other qualities than 
pedagogical insight. Where occasionally a strong character has 
made efforts and even succeeded in raising the standards of the 
school work, ignorant, ambitious-, mercenary or malicious dema- 
gogues ride into power on an artificially created reactionary wave 
and turn the wheels of progress backward ; sometimes by means of 
partisan politics, sometimes by utilizing class despotism which is 
gaining ground in formerly progressive communities where grow- 
ing masses of uninformed people follow leaders or misleaders 
blindly. Morbid maxims have been taught the adults, and thru mere 
intercourse as well as positive precept infused also into the souls of 
the children. The already effeminate discipline continues to deteri- 
orate in the schools, which are thus becoming hotbeds of incipient 
anarchy. 

Reverence for the teachers, the school, the parents, elders in gen- 
eral, for the home, for heroes and great men and women has become 
rare fruit. But by the fruits of any civilization must its degree of 
excellence be measured. 

Even those who like myself maintain an optimistic attitude of 
faith in the general upward evolution of mankind admit — under the 
impact of daily events, the utterances of the serious press, on the 
rostrums and in the pulpits — that while during the last three decades 
our educational system may have imparted to the growing genera- 
tions somewhat more knowledge than before, we have signally failed 
to elevate the souls, the characters ; that as a nation we have become 
less idealistic, more mercenary and crudely materialistic ; and that 
therefore the last one-third of a century may rightly be called a 



period of spiritual and ethical decadence. This tendency ought to 
be changed and reversed, the sooner the better. 

There are probably over sixteen million chikln.'n of common 
school age in the United States and nearly fiye hundred thousand 
teachers whose duty it is, and delight it ought to be, to reach those 
children's souls and develop them in the direction of goodness. But 
how many or few accomplish this? The School Superintendent of 
one of the states recently admitted that a majority of the school 
teachers are not able to meet the requirements of modern pedagogy 
as instructors and soul educators. When asked why the normal 
schools do not equip them with the necessary, knowledge and prac- 
tical training, he gave as the principal cause the lack of time. He 
also admitted that this unpardonable condition resulted largely from 
insufficient requirements of admission prescribed by the regents, from 
non-enforcement of even those inadequate requirements, and from 
the insufficiency of the time given the students for observation and 
practice in the training schools. Thus the Regents of the Normal 
Schools sacrifice quality for numbers, i. e., for the worthless repu- 
tation of popularity ; this means that they have wasted a great deal 
of time (and of the money intrusted to them for pedagogical train- 
ing) upon work which their feeders, the common and high schools 
ought to have done. 

THE REMEDY, 

The kindergarten, grade and high-school pupil of today will be 
the American voter in a very few years. There is but one com- 
pletely effective means of halting the present downward movement 
and turning it into an uplifting one : An improved education broader 
and better in quality and poiver, ethical and esthetic as well as in- 
tellectual and physical, for the whole people, not only for five per 
cent to ten per cent that are now enabled to go to the high schools, 
colleges and universities. Every healthy citizen should be raised 
upon a level of general culture so as to be able to observe, think, 
judge and act for himself and be independent of misleaders. Then 
it would be possible to solve peaceably the labor problem and other 
serious problems on lines of reason and justice, without sacrificing 
the inalienable rights on which our free government rests. Then 
permanent industrial peace might reign, and for the first time in the 
history of the human race could a government of the people, by the 
people and for the people, our civic ideal, become possible, because 
if practically all citizens are endowed with cultured minds and 
ethical character so as to be able and disposed to apply the Golden 
Rule, the experiences of universal history, first principles and the 



6 

laws of nature to all investigations, ignorant and unprincipled mis- 
leaders will be out of business. To become a leader of men will 
then require a lofty character, pure methods, large knowledge and 
extraordinary power. 

PROTOTYPES OF THE PROPOSED MODEL. 

A large number of private and association schools established 
and conducted in many parts of the United States by well-trained 
pedagogues in the third quarter of the nineteenth century accord- 
ing to rational, developing, objective principles, methods and aims 
as understood at that time, succeeded thru the advantages 
afforded by those methods in equipping their pupils at the ^ge of 
about fourteen years with an all-around education for life approxi- 
mately equal in scope to that given by our present high school, but 
better in quality, including even a good practical command of two 
modern languages. 

These actual results were achieved in comparatively inferior 
buildings, with scant equipment and financial support, at a time 
when those institutions were not yet aided by the kindergarten 
which now gives our elementary schools a better fundament and a 
ten years' course. 

THE writer's EXPERIENCE. 

The writer bases his ideas on actual experience, having received 
his schooling at one of these rational "new education" advanced 
picket posts, stepping from its threshold into the battle of life at 
fourteen years of age. He knew of a number of other similar in- 
stitutions in the East and West, remained in touch with them and 
the progressive educational movements and pioneers for the greater 
part of half a century, and was not only actively engaged in their 
support by publications and society work, but remained an interested 
observer of all educational movements and needs of the 
people at home and in foreign countries; he was a school 
teacher and private teacher for several years, and was frequently • 
called upon to substitute for absent or sick teachers during years 
after his physical condition (having lost a leg in the civil war), in- 
duced him to go into business. Observing closely several kinder- 
gartens he assisted in establishing in connection with and as the 
foundation of elementary schools at Milwaukee for several 
years, he conceived and formulated in i874-'75 the first fundamental 
ideas of a comprehensive project for a reorganization of the Ameri- 
can common school system on consistent "new education" lines. 
Observations he made in Switzerland, Germany, France and Mexico 
at various times, confirmed his opinion and gave him new opportuni- 



7 

ties to improve his plan, which was further elaborated in 1877 to 
1881, 1890 to 1893, 1894 to 1895, 1897 to 1899, and mainly in 1905 
to 1907. It is now complete in essentials. 

MAIN FEATURES OF THE MODEL SCHOOL. 

Among the principal features I mention the following, referring 
for further details and arguments mainly to a fuller prospectus 
ready for the press. 

The rational principles, methods and aims of truly humane edu- 
cation that have long been advanced by the greatest pedagogic 
philosophers of the past and which are advocated in theory by prac- 
tically all the coryphees of the profession today, but have as yet 
nowhere been carried out consistently in practice by any govern- 
ment, shall be the law for a 

MODEL SCHOOL 

to be established somewhere in the United States where the en- 
vironments as to climate and school population are satisfactory. 
Externally this school shall be organized in a general way like a 
public school, tuition being free. 

A faculty composed exclusively of able practical teachers, neither 
too old nor too young, of sufficient experience and devoted to "new 
education" ideals, shall be engaged and placed under the direction 
Oif a president possessed of those qualities in a higher degree, a 
genial disposition and a strong character. 

The school shall have twelve grades for children about four 
to sixteen years of age. A post-graduate class or department may 
be added if some of its graduates and those of other contiguous 
districts wish or need additional instruction in some subjects for 
admission to certain university courses or other higher and special 
schools. 

The fundaments of all subjects of common school instruction 
are naturally laid in a good kindergarten. They should be inter- 
related mutually also with plays, play work, excursions, gardening, 
physical, manu-cerebral, domestic and ethical culture in all grades. 

All the subjects shall be developed with the aid of the prescribed 
natural, rational methods continuously from the kindergarten 
thru all the grades. Physical culture, including lung, vocal and 
play exercises, must receive daily attention. 

ETHICAL CULTURE AND PRINCIPAL AIMS. 

Ethical culture having for its object the most important goal of 
all education — the evolution of good, beautiful souls and strong 



8 

characters — must always be kept in view so that no opportunities 
for ethical influences may be overlooked if such present themselves 
in the course of the school work. Each member of the faculty 
should possess a degree of pedagogical and general culture suffi- 
cient to teach all subjects in any grade from the first to the eighth 
or twelfth, and combine with it special knowledge and skill in some 
one of the branches of instruction, in which he could under emer- 
gencies be looked upon by his colleagues as an authority and 
example.. 

THE ABSORPTION OF THE HIGH SCHOOL. 

The new system will gradually absorb the present expensive and 
unsatisfactory high schools, and many special superintendencies, 
as soon as the normal schools receive better prepared students and 
learn to train them better, so that the total expenses will not be 
increased materially by the reorganization. 

The present teachers of high schools will all find employment in 
the new system, where their work will prove less arduous, more 
fruitful and satisfactory to both pupils and teachers, 

ALL MODERN ADJUNCTS INCLUDED, 

This institution is to supply models for all the adjuncts which 
modern pedagogy demands within the range of the public school 
system to meet the needs of the people and contemporary conditions, 
as for instance: Parental or special classes, special help hours, 
mothers' clubs, garden and park, play grounds, gymnasium, swim- 
ming tank, evening classes, a school and vacation farm, normal 
courses, etc. 

MANU-CEREBRAL CULTURE. 

The manu-cerebral culture (manual training) phase of the school 
work shall not make sets of models the ideals or idols, but shall be 
largely if not mainly an ever ready correlative helpmeet in all 
grades and for all subjects, lor work and play, decoration and en- 
tertainment, tho it must also have a goal of skill and systematic 
achievement to guide it in every grade and for the whole course. In 
the advanced grades this phase may be shaped so as to afford special 
elective preparation for trade, art, commercial, agricultural and 
domestic training, apprenticeships, or technical and other special 
schools. 

CO-OPERATION OF HOME, SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY. 

This ancient pedagogic ideal is at last to be achieved by an 
association of the teachers and families of the district or parents of 
the pupils, having for its object the cultivation of harmony and co- 
operation between the school, the home and the community (or 



9 

school district), making the school house the center of the general 
esthetic and intellectual as well as educational life, and the source 
of social entertainment of a higher order for the school district; 
this cooperation to be inspired and assisted in a quiet and inob- 
trusive but persistent way by the teachers and their intercourse 
with the parents and citizens of the district generally. 

THE WHOLE EDUCATION A UNITARY LIVING GROWTH. 

Thus the education of the child will be a unitary growth, a living 
whole, such as the great pedagogical philosophers have demanded 
for many generations past, like a beautiful palm or other tree having 
its roots and rootlets in the well cultivated kindergarten, its grace- 
ful form crowned by a glorious burst of foliage, of blossoms and 
fruit ; whereas the present system still generally in vogue is com- 
parable to a top-heavy inverted pyramid of lifeless separate blocks 
stacked in a certain order without vital relation. 

RESULTS CLAIAIED. 

There can be no doubt that this proposed model school, well 
officered and equipped and kept absolutely free from political and 
other detrimental non-pedagogical influences, enjoying beside the 
eight grades of the rational schools referred to above, two kinder- 
garten grades as a better foundation and two additional advanced 
grades at the top, will achieve far better results than were attained 
by its former simpler prototypes of inferior equipment ; it will give 
its pupils at about sixteen years of age an all-around culture of a 
scope approximately equal to that obtained in the present high 
schools at about eighteen years of age, but better in quality and 
powers. 

PRIVATE ENDOWMENT ESSENTIAL. 

Freedom from those detrimental, even vitiating influences can 
only be secured by a private endowment and a Board of Trustees 
of high character and integrity, of whom a majority should be 
persons of general culture and profound pedagogical insight, be- 
lieving in the "new educational" ideals. The business control can 
easily be safeguarded by one member of financial experience and 
perhaps one of the legal profession. 

A CULTURED NATION. 

When this first Model School shall have proved these claims at 
the end of its first period of twelve, years, it will also thereby have 
demonstrated that the general introduction of its system could 
within a few decades raise the whole people, except the unsatis- 
factory part of the products of the old system and new uneducated 



10 

adult immigrants, upon a cultural level now only attainable by five 
to ten per cent of the population. 

' USEFUL AS A SCHOOL OF OBSERVATION FOR TEACHERS, 

The future establishment of one or more such model schools in 
every state of the Union as schools of observation where all active 
teachers as well as new normal graduates may take a special train- 
ing for this "new education," to be made a requirement for a new 
state certificate and reappointment or probationary appointment in 
the public schools, would facilitate and accelerate the proposed 
highly beneficial and necessary improvement of popular education. 

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION NEEDED. 

The United States Bureau of Education has hitherto unfortu- 
nately been little more than an organization for the collection and 
dissemination of information and advice respecting one of the most 
important and incisive functions of our free government ; it repre- 
sents the noble profession to which the people entrust their dearest 
treasures, the souls of their sixteen million children. 

The bureau should, if possible, at the next session of Congress, 
be transformed into a full department of the United States govern- 
ment with representation in the presidential cabinet, with such direc- 
tive powers as may be delegated to it by a wise Congress, some of 
which are briefly sketched in the outline of my forthcoming more 
detailed "Prospectus." Such a strong department of education 
could be made a powerful factor in the proposed great reform. 

It is impossible in this synopsis to do justice to the merits of the 
plan for the "People's New Education Advanced Common Schools," 
the reorganization of the whole American public school system and 
the consequent elevation of the nation's life it "is intended to in- 
augurate ; the reader of this is respectfully and earnestly requested 
to reserve his final judgment until after the perusal of the ampler 
details and arguments presented in the "Prospectus," 

While the Model School will probably be able to convince peda- 
gogical visitors after a few years that its claims are well founded. 
in the eyes of the public the battle probably cannot be won before 
the graduation at the end of the first twelve years' course. 

MISSIONARY NORMAL COURSES AND PROPAGANDA DEPARTMENT. 

But in order to have as soon as possible a large number of. mis, 
sionaries blazing the way for the new-educational evangel, and tp.be. 
able to supply existing normal schools and other new model schools 
with teachers, trained in and devoted to the new system, our firs* 
Model School will as soon as fairly in running order institute a 



11 

regular normal course, a summer normal course and a correspond- 
ence normal course. 

A propaganda department with a printing outfit is to organize a 
permanent campaign in the interest of this cause, seeking the co- 
operation of the press and all educational and patriotic associations, 
distributing bulletins, tracts, etc., thruout the United States. 

No intelligent true patriot, man or woman, can fail to become 
deeply interested, if informed of the transcendently important sec- 
ondary results that certainly must follow the proposed educational 
betterments, which are destined to safeguard our republic against 
all impending dangers better than any other means. 

State Superintendent C. P. Gary of Wisconsin, President C. H. 
\'an Hise of the State University and Prof. M. V. O'Shea, the Dean 
of its Department of Education ; Prof. Charles McKenney of the 
Milwaukee State Normal School and Superintendent Carroll G. 
Pearse of Milwaukee have endorsed this project of national reform 
in all essentials ; so have other experienced members of the profes- 
sion here and elsewhere ; also President A. S. Lindemann of the 
Milwaukee School Board, Mr. Henry S. Legler, who was for 
many years the highly esteemed secretary of the same board, and 
Prof. S. Y. Gillan, editor of the "Western Teacher," an experienced 
educator. The opin'on of the last named gentlemen is of great 
weight, as vcpresenting largely the practical administrative point of 
view. 'I'he opinions expressed by a number of non-professional 
friends and promoters of education who heard my lecture on this 
subject at Plymouth Church were all favorable. 

I believe the psychological moment for this advance movement 
has arrived. 

FUNDS NEEDED. 

The Model School with the farm, normal and other adjuncts 
will, require the following estimated endowments: 

For preparatory work during one year $ 50,000 

For sites, buildings and equipments, $250,000 to . . 300,000 
For maintenance an annual income of $60,000, 

for not less than 24 years, unless the new 

system is generally adopted sooner. 

This new estimate includes the cost of the literary and mechan- 
ical production of a first edition of 1,000 or 2,000 each of a series 
of 40 (more or less) teachers' manuals of moderate size and charts, 
which will not only be desirable for the Model School, but would 
be a valuable aid for most of the 500,000 teachers in the United 
States in vastly improving their work under the old system, no 
matter what text books they use. 




mr , . 1 XT r 1 . • ^■^^^^'^^ °^ CONGRESS 

IMational JNew hducati 

(N. N. E. L.) __ 

Headquarters: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U. S. A. v,...!?^! 344 694" 

BOAUU OF DIIIECTOHS. 

C. H. DoEKFLiNGEB, President. Dr. Walter Kempstki:, Pfiychologist. 

Dr. F. C. Mock, 1st V. Pres. Judson Titsworth, Prtstor'Plyniotith Church. 

Capt. I. M. Bean, 2nd V. Pres. Hy. L. Ward, Dir. Public Museum. 

Rudolph Clauder, Rec. Sec. & Treas. John A. Butler, of Nat'l Civil Serv. Council. 

Wm. Geo. Bruce, Sec. Mer. & Mfrs. Ass'n. 

Annual Membership Fees: Minimum fl. SustainingMember- 

ship f 10 or more. Life Membership .f 50 or more. 

Members receive the official magazine free. 

Patriotic Men and Women 

Friends of the Public School, the Palladium oi our Liberty, 
who wish to promote this project of educational and civic bet- 
terment and consequent national uplift by distributing litera- 
fure, will be supplied at the following rates, postpaid : 

1 10 .-iO 100 

COPY COPIES COPIES COPIES 

C.H.Doerflinger,Synopsis,12 pp... 10.10 |0.75 |3.00 $5.50 
C.H.Doerflinger,Prospectus,48pp. 0.25 1.80 8.00 15.00 
C. H. Doerflinger, Reorganization 

ofthe Am. Public School System 0.05 0.25 ^0.80 1.50 
Bertha Johnston, Fruit of the Kin- 
dergarten Stunted, - - 0.08 0.10 0.30 0.50 
Rev. W. C. F. Koch, Present Con- 
dition and Hopes, - - 0.04 0.15 0.50 0.80 
We recommend, and supply postpaid on receipt of $2.00, Ninjj 
C. Vanderwalker, The Kindergarten in American Educa- 
tion, 274 pp. cloth. 
"National New Education," official organ of the N. N. E. L., 
at least 8 pp , 10 months a year. Price $1.00, single 
copies 15 cents. 

Address National New Education League, Milwaukee, 
Wis., and make all remittances payable to the same. 

If funds supplied suffice, it is contemplated to send the 
magazine to 100,000 select men and women in all states who 
are expected to became centers of agitation for the new educa- 
tional and civic evangel. The first 25,000 are being mailed. 
Friends of the ethical, intellectual, civic and industrial advan- 
cement of our nation, will be welcome as lu-enibers of the N. N. 
E. L , without distinction of party or other affiliations. 

Dignified adv^ertisements of unobjectionable nature accept- 
ed. Rates given on request. 

Reference: Germania National Bank. 



